


Between now and Thanksgiving

by TuesdayWithSunrise



Category: Bawson, pitch-tv
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, Sure thing that hasn’t started
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 16:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15732831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TuesdayWithSunrise/pseuds/TuesdayWithSunrise
Summary: Living in the moment when the future has no name.I’m a sucker for a sure thing that hasn’t started yet.





	Between now and Thanksgiving

The late night calls make for a strange duel relationship. On the phone they are intimate, flirting, and a little more forthcoming when they talk. The clubhouse is a different matter all together, loud and fun - filled with sweat and determination. Most of the team doesn’t know about the late night talks, but Duarte once had a room between them on the road and noticed the laughter in stereo. 

At night Ginny hears the weight of the world on Mike’s shoulders. He close to the end of his career, the Padres are close to the end of the season, and he’s at the end of his rope. In the clubhouse he’ll admit to being an elder statesmen but won’t concede he can see the end of his days as an active Padre. 

Mid-September when it is all over except for the crying Mike stops talking about the off-season, he stops talking about anything except the next day or the next series. On the phone he is an endless series of questions, keeping her talking no matter how deliberately she tries to check in with him. 

It took days for her to notice and another week of testing to see that he really had become the best listener in the world and had absolutely stopped talking. 

They were in San Diego and both drowsy and warm tucked in their own beds. She wanted tonight to be different. 

“What scared you most when you were a senior in high school?” 

Mike laughed, “I was such an asshole my senior year I should have been scared that Coach would run me over with the team bus. I wasn’t scared of anything that year.”

“What about when you got called up?” She was going to find a time he would admit to being afraid tonight. 

“I played the strangest double header that day, I got pulled and got the call in the third and the driver was waiting for me in the locker room. Shook hands with my pitcher and then he threw two perfect innings right out of the gate.”

“The time Jackson got your wrist with the fastball?”

From the self-indulgent memory of coming up to the bigs to that moment was a horrible turn on memory lane. “All I really remember was staring at the ceiling in the ED and looking at that ugly ceiling tile. Memorizing the pattern of the last day of my career. It didn’t work out like that but my wrist was so swollen I couldn’t image I’d be able to throw again, and at that point I would have eaten glass before I went to first base.”

“The play on Baez today was great by the way.” He’d spent about half of the last month on first base. 

Mike sighed, he had understood what Ginny was doing and now he was finally as ready as he would ever be. “What are you doing tonight Rookie?”

“I’m thinking about Thanksgiving at Blip & Ev’s. I want to know what to wear when you pick me up.” Mike made a question noise and Ginny took a deep breath before she continued, “I’ve been watching the last few years. If my Captain picks me up then I think it will be that black and rose dress again, it leaves plenty of room for thirds of squash casserole. If my date picks me up and we’re both still a bit giddy love drunk then I’m finally going to wear this little number I picked up a few months ago and is waiting patiently still wrapped in tissue. I know though, that my date might still be sad and scared with all the changes in his life. Then I’ve got some black slacks that leave room for seconds on squash casserole but teamed up with a blouse will keep his eyes busy.”

Mike stopped mid-exhale when she casually referred to him as her date, and his eyes squeezed shut when she mentioned being love drunk. 

So this would be the conversation. His eyes welled up a little, he sat up in bed and looked at the picture across the room. It was six of them from last spring in Peoria but his arm was around Ginny’s shoulder and her’s around his waist. He locked eyes with photo-Ginny. 

“So. You’ll be headed to your Captain’s house I suspect. And I hope you don’t think I’ll be driving Lyft by NOVEMBER Rookie. So. Does that make me your date?” There. He’d said it, sort of. 

“Would you do me the honor of being my date to Thanksgiving?” Ginny had tears in her eyes and her voice but she wasn’t really surprised. 

Mike smiled, she really did want him. “I’ve heard ball players can be an intimidating at stuff like that. Can we go out a couple of times before that?”

“Yes.”


End file.
